


A Friendly Wager

by LerxstInSpace



Series: Contingency Plan-verse Good++ Ending [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam's Parents are Great, Awkward Conversations, Curtis' parents are great, Fluff and Humor, Multi, Polyamory, Shiro's parents were terrible but they're getting better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 19:16:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21141836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LerxstInSpace/pseuds/LerxstInSpace
Summary: They’ve done a lot of talking over the past couple of weeks, Adam and Curtis and Takashi, about this new thing they’re all still adjusting to. Polyamory is uncharted territory for all of them, after all, and they’re all sort of figuring out how to navigate it as they go along.But there’s one thing they haven’t discussed yet, something they definitely won’t be able to put off forever, and now that the whirlwind of activity that’s kept them all occupied for the last couple of weeks is starting to let up a little he figures this is probably the time to mention it.“We should probably tell our families,” Adam says over dinner one night.[The one where they do exactly that. It ends well. Mostly.]





	A Friendly Wager

A lot has happened over the last few weeks. 

Adam came back to Earth again, moved out of his dorm room, and moved into Curtis and Takashi’s house. They got him set up with their therapist, and he’s gone to see her a couple of times, and so far it’s working out. He’s had another meeting with Command. This time he was armed to the teeth with flight data from his short stint with the Blades and from the wreck of the freighter he crash-landed on Haven. It was a little harrowing--Adam didn’t count on them wanting to play the damn cockpit audio from the wreck, and he was  _ very  _ glad Takashi had insisted on waiting to schedule this until he had a couple of therapy sessions under his belt and learned a few good short-term coping strategies--but the outcome was exactly the one he wanted. Takashi got him started on the cargo sim programs and he’s breezing through them, and he might even be cleared for training flights on the real thing before the summer is over. 

And they’ve done a lot of talking over the past couple of weeks, Adam and Curtis and Takashi, about this new thing they’re all still adjusting to. Polyamory is uncharted territory for all of them, after all, and they’re all sort of figuring out how to navigate it as they go along. 

But there’s one thing they haven’t discussed yet, something they definitely won’t be able to put off forever, and now that the whirlwind of activity that’s kept them all occupied for the last couple of weeks is starting to let up a little he figures this is probably the time to mention it.

“We should probably tell our families,” Adam says over dinner one night.

Well, he’s only talked to his parents once since he moved in, just to let them know he’s back on Earth and planning on staying this time, but he didn’t give them a lot of specifics about his current situation. He didn’t tell them why he really ran off to join the Blades, and he didn’t tell them he’s living with Curtis and Takashi, and he sure as hell didn’t tell them  _ why  _ he’s living with Curtis and Takashi. He’d actually kind of rather not have this conversation with them at all. Sure, all those years ago when he told them he liked boys it didn’t faze them but this... this is a whole new thing, and even as laid-back as his folks are he has no idea how they’re going to take it, but the longer he waits the more awkward it’s going to be when they inevitably find out.

Curtis winces a little when Adam says that. He knows it’s true, he needs to tell  _ his  _ family too, but... same deal. Curtis having a husband is a non-issue. Curtis having  _ two  _ husbands might be a little harder for them to swallow. 

And then there’s Takashi’s shitty parents. 

The same shitty parents who told their fourteen-year-old only child who had just come out to them that he could call them back when he was “done with that phase.” The same shitty parents Takashi was always trying to talk to when he got written up for being on the phone after lights out. The same shitty parents Takashi almost killed himself trying to prove his worth to. The same shitty parents who, after Sendak’s bunch had been kicked off Earth, told their only son they were glad he was okay and they were sorry for his loss but maybe now that  _ that man  _ was gone he could finally put  _ that phase  _ behind him and start thinking about finding a nice Japanese girl to marry. 

Yeah, sure, according to Takashi and Curtis they’ve grown significantly less shitty since then, they showed up at the wedding and mostly behaved themselves the whole time and even apologized to Takashi for the way they treated him. And thanks to a very patient and loving husband and a supportive found family and a hell of a lot of therapy Takashi finally understands that in the grand scheme of things, his parents’ opinions about him or his accomplishments or his personal life count for precisely fuckall. 

Still... that’s a conversation Adam isn’t looking forward to witnessing, and he’s thinking about assuring Takashi that it’s perfectly okay if he’d rather not when Takashi suggests a friendly wager.

“Whoever’s folks make it the least awkward wins,” he says. “Dinner anywhere you want, the other two pick up the check.”

Curtis wrinkles his nose up, and Adam can’t help but grin a little at how adorable that is. “That seems a little... backwards to me? Shouldn’t the one that goes the  _ worst  _ get treated to dinner?”

“He’s right,” Adam says, but Takashi laughs and shakes his head.

“I think we all know I’d win that one. No, see, if we do it the other way, at least there’s some competition.”

Adam looks over at Curtis. Curtis looks back, one eyebrow raised.

“That’s a good point,” he says. Adam still thinks this is kind of bass-ackwards, but Curtis is right. It  _ is  _ a good point. And at least Takashi will get a lot of entertainment out of watching them stumble through the “hi Mom, hi Dad, I’m in a threesome” talk.

“Okay,” Adam says. “I’m in.”

* * *

The next Saturday, Curtis and Adam flip a coin to see who has to go first because Takashi kind of has to go last on account of time zones. Curtis wins that dubious honor.

And just because he  _ has  _ to lovingly troll his husbands, Adam opens up his laptop and starts perusing the menu from that really fancy Italian place he likes (and that Curtis and Takashi also both like, of course) while Curtis calls his parents.

His mom picks up. They exchange the usual greetings. There are kid sounds in the background--some of Curtis’ niblings must be running around the house today. Curtis clears his throat and asks his mom to get his dad and put him on speaker so he can talk to both of them.

“So, uh... there’s something I need to tell you.” Curtis lets out a nervous laugh. He looks like he might be sweating a little. “Everything’s fine, I’m fine, Takashi’s fine, we just, um...” He glances up at Adam and shrugs-- _ how the hell do I put this!?  _ Adam shrugs back-- _ figure it out, babe.  _ “We, um. Well... we’re--we’re seeing someone? Together? And he’s... kind of living with us? And I, uh... I thought you should know.”

_ Oof.  _

Well... he didn’t completely whiff this. He got right to the point, stuck to the facts, and put the ball in their court, but...  _ oof. _

There is a long and very uncomfortable silence broken only by kid noises in the background. Takashi grimaces like he’s bracing for an explosion. Curtis looks like his whole life is flashing before his eyes. Takashi wraps an arm around his shoulders and Adam rubs his back and that seems to relax him a little, but that silence is  _ very  _ tense.

“Oh,” Curtis’ mom finally says, with a nervous laugh of her own. “Really? This is, um.”

“Uh, yeah,” his dad chimes in. “I mean. We’re not, uh--we’re not mad or anything but, uh... I guess if he’s living with you it’s kind of, uh... serious?”

“It’s serious,” Curtis squeaks.

“Well. Um. Honey, you know we love you no matter what,” his mom says, “it’s just... this is kind of, um...”

Another long pause. Takashi looks physically uncomfortable. Adam feels secondhand embarrassment starting to set in.

“This is just, uh... just going to take some getting used to!” Curtis’ mom finally finishes. “It’ll... it’ll be fine! It’ll be fine. We just need to... y’know. Adjust.”

“So... tell us about him, I guess?” his dad prompts, in a tone of voice that sounds a little like the verbal equivalent of defusing a bomb.

Curtis rubs his forehead and kind of looks like he wants to crawl under the couch and stay there for the rest of his life. “It’s Adam.”

Silence.

“...Adam?” his mom repeats. “... _ that  _ Adam?” 

_ “That  _ Adam, yeah.”

It’s as if those three short words flip a switch. “Oh! _Oh!” _His mom lets out a very relieved puff of laughter. “Okay! Well, that’s fine! Why didn’t you say so right up front?”

Curtis’ eyes go wide. “Um--but we’re all--you just said--”

“No, it’s okay, forget all that, it’s all good,” his dad says. “You’re going to bring both of them home to see us soon, right?”

The call goes on a little longer, and once Curtis wraps his brain around his parents being okay with this (well, at least they’re okay with it as long as Adam is one of the parties involved in it) he relaxes and it’s fine. It’s all fine. 

It’s all fine, except Adam is a little worried about what’s going to happen with their little wager now. Yeah, sure, that started off cringey as hell but...

Adam looks at Takashi. Takashi just shrugs and shakes his head. And pulls out his phone to double-check his bank account. Just in case.

* * *

Adam goes next, and he’s still not really sure how this is going to pan out.

His parents will  _ probably  _ not be too upset about this. And, well... it’s going to be hard to get much more awkward than the way Curtis’ call started out. 

_ I got this,  _ Adam thinks.

And then he looks over at Curtis. Curtis has the laptop in his lap and a big grin on his face and the reservation form on Fogo de Chão’s website up.  _ Shit. _ He took Adam there one time, back when they were living in the dorm and didn’t have to worry about paying rent, and even then it was--okay, sure, they’re living in a paid-off house with three senior officer paychecks coming in plus that lump of back pay that’s still sitting in Adam’s account, but...  _ oof. _

_ I may not got this,  _ Adam thinks. But he calls his parents’ number anyway.

His dad picks up. “Hey!” he says in that unique way he has, the way that makes that single syllable feel like a hug. They exchange the usual pleasantries and small talk, and then Adam asks his dad to call his mom in, because he needs to tell them something.

“Okay, hon,” his mom says. “Now... you’re not about to just up and run off to space again, are you?”

“No, God no, nothing like that,” Adam laughs. “I’m... I think I’m going to stick on Earth for a while. I just, uh... thought you should know I, um...” He glances over at Curtis. Curtis is typing their information into the reservation form at an excruciatingly slow single-finger pace. Takashi grimaces and checks his bank account again, but Adam can see it in the way his eyes are glazing over when he glances at Curtis’ laptop--he’s already daydreaming about the parade of servers bringing endless meat right to their very table. “I’m... I moved out of the dorm and I, uh...” He takes a deep breath. “I’m living with Takashi and Curtis.”

Silence for a moment. 

“Oh?” Adam’s mom says. Well, she doesn’t sound mad...

“Yeah. We’re uh...” Adam shuts his eyes and silently rattles off a quick prayer to--to whoever might be listening, at this point he figures he can’t afford to be picky about it. “We’re, uh... together. All of us. Like--oh God please don’t be upset.”

Another silence, this one much longer. Much, much longer. 

“...Mom?”

Silence.

“Are you... are you okay?” 

More silence. Shit.  _ Shit.  _ This isn’t going over well. It’s not going over well at all and--

\--is his dad  _ laughing? _

His dad  _ is _ laughing, that near-silent kind of helpless wheezing laughter. And so is his mom. They’re both laughing. Why?  _ Why are they laughing,  _ what the hell is happening right now !?

“Oh, honey,” his mom finally chuckles once she catches her breath, “you come from a long and proud line of rennies and hippies, do you really think a little entry-level polyamory is going to freak us out?  _ Please.” _

“So--you’re okay with it?”

“Of course we are. If you’re all happy, we’re happy for you.”

Adam lets out a breath. Okay. She’s fine with this, so is his dad (probably, he still hasn’t said anything). 

So why does he feel like there’s another shoe waiting to drop here? 

Why does Curtis have that look on his face like he’s opening canned biscuits and bracing for the pop? Why is Takashi grinning and leaning in towards the phone like he wishes he had a tub of popcorn? 

...because his dad hasn’t said anything yet. Because his dad is  _ still laughing. _

Why is his dad still laughing?

Come to think of it... what, exactly, did his mom mean by  _ entry-level? _

...oh.

Oh no. 

Oh God!  _ No!  _ Anything but that! God, please  _ literally fucking anything but that-- _

Adam hears his dad grin. 

He doesn’t know how he hears it, but he knows his dad and he knows there’s a big evil shit-eating grin creeping across his dad’s face, and he knows he is about to lose this friendly wager in a way he never expected to.  _ Don’t say it,  _ Adam begs silently, but it’s too late. His dad chimes in with the six most horrifying words Adam has ever heard him say:

“We could tell you some stories!”

_ “PLEASE DON’T!”  _ Adam claps both hands over his ears and bolts out of the living room, pursued by the sound of hysterical cackling and seal-clapping as Takashi and Curtis both lose every last bit of their shit behind him.

* * *

They have to wait a while before Takashi can call his parents. Maybe Takashi doesn’t care what they think of him anymore, but he wasn’t raised in a barn and he’s not going to call anyone in the middle of the night if it’s not a bona fide shit-vs.-fan event.

“Maybe I should, uh... not do this on speaker,” Takashi suggests while they’re passing the time. “I mean. I don’t care what they say about me, but...”

He doesn’t have to finish that sentence. Takashi does care a great deal what his parents might say to or about Curtis, and to or about Adam, and Adam knows he’s probably making that suggestion to spare them from anything ugly they might say. 

Which... no. Hell no. Adam knows Takashi too well, and so does Curtis. And neither of them want Takashi to have to take the whole burden of whatever shit his parents might say on himself, no matter how sure he is that it won’t hurt him. 

(Also not putting the call on speaker would make it easier for Takashi to bluff and act like the conversation is going well if it’s not, and if all Adam and Curtis have to go on is Takashi’s side of the call they’d  _ have _ to take his word for it because they love and trust their husband, but never mind that.)

So Adam gently puts the kibosh on the non-speaker call, and Curtis gently backs him up on it. He hasn’t finalized their reservation at the meat-til-you-die place yet but the form is still up on his laptop, taunting them both. He might as well finish it after the way Adam’s call home went, God, what the hell even  _ was-- _ no.  _ Fuck  _ no. He doesn’t want to know any more than he already does. Getting the “where babies come from” talk and realizing that was where  _ he himself  _ came from was bad enough. Finding out his parents might have--might have--

He can’t even finish that thought, and he knows his next appointment with the therapist is going to be “fun” for him and probably actually extremely entertaining for her.

Takashi goes off sometime after dinner to poke on the model he’s working on, and Curtis takes that opportunity to pull Adam into the laundry room for a quick conference.

“So uh...” Curtis starts, with a little sheepish laugh, “I think we both know I got this.”

“That’s it. Rub it in.” Adam tries to look put-upon and grouchy, but he can’t hold it for long. Not when Curtis is being that damn adorable.

“Oh, I will, but that’s not what this is about.” Curtis pokes his head out into the kitchen to make sure Takashi isn’t in earshot. “I was thinking... we still do Fogo because we all like it, but we treat Takashi instead?”

This isn’t what Adam was expecting to hear, but he nods. It’s a great idea. He can’t imagine Takashi’s call home going any way but bad, and he’s going to need the treat a lot more than either of them. “Yeah,” he says. “I’m on board with that.”

“Cool.” Curtis flashes him a grin with just the slightest bit of a wicked edge to it and kisses him on the tip of his nose. “Let’s wait until after he calls them to tell him, though.”

Adam returns that little shifty grin. “And still troll him with the reservation thing in the meantime?”

“Well,  _ obviously.” _

* * *

Later that night, Takashi gets two beers out of the fridge for himself and Adam and a bottle of sweet hard cider for Curtis. He sits down on the couch, dials his parents, and puts the phone on speaker. He takes a long drink of his beer while it’s ringing and Curtis and Adam squish him in on either side, ready to comfort him if this turns ugly.

The funny thing about the translator nanites nestled in all three of their brains is, they still hear whatever’s being said in whatever language it’s being said in. They don’t hear it rendered into their native languages, they just hear what’s being said and understand it.  It never really struck Adam as odd until now, when he’s sitting here on this couch and hearing all of this in Japanese and still understanding every word of it. He can’t  _ speak  _ it, so Takashi’s nanite-free shitty parents won’t understand anything he might say to them and that’s probably for the best. 

But it still weirds Adam out a little that he doesn’t need Curtis to translate when Takashi’s mom answers the phone and Takashi rips right into “Let me get right to the point. Adam is alive, he’s home, and he and Curtis and I are all together. Yes,  _ like that.  _ Deal with it or don’t but if you don’t, don’t expect me to put up with you or Dad being nasty to either of them.”

There’s a pause that feels like it has the potential to be very long and very awkward. But it does not live up to that potential. It doesn’t even come close.

“That’s fine,” Takashi’s mom says. 

Adam can see it in his face. Takashi was planning for this conversation to go a number of different ways, but that wasn’t one of them. “Uh... what?”

_ “It’s fine.”  _ She sounds sincere. Maybe just a tiny bit passive-aggressive? But not overtly sarcastic or anything. “Do what you want.”

Adam’s jaw drops. Curtis looks like he’s hearing this but trying to process it is crashing his brain.

“Okay,” Takashi says, and he looks just as bewildered. “You want me to tell Dad myself, or--”

“I’ll tell him.”

“Wow. Great. Thanks?”

“Sure. Just hurry up and give us grandchildren before we die.” 

“Yeah. I’ll get right on that,” Takashi says in a tone that suggests he will absolutely not get right on that but doesn’t want to discuss it any further right now. “Bye, Mom.”

“Bye.” She hangs up.

And that’s it. 

It’s done. 

No screaming. No fighting. Just... “it’s fine, do what you want” and the obligatory bitching about grandkids. And it’s over. Just like that.

Takashi puffs out an incredulous laugh. “Wow,” he says. “That was easy!”

Adam stares at Curtis. Curtis stares back.

And Takashi... Takashi just takes a nice long drink of his beer and gets up. “Man... I didn’t even think of a place! Eh, it’s fine, I’ll get back to you.” And with the biggest, shit-eatingest grin, he bops off to the model room to check on the printer, leaving Adam and Curtis on the couch staring open-mouthed and wide-eyed at each other.

“What the hell just happened?” Adam finally asks. “Are my nanites fucked up, or did she just say ‘it’s fine--’”

“Nope.” Curtis shakes his head. “That’s what she said.”

Adam glances over at Curtis’ laptop, where the unsent reservation form is still sitting on the screen, and sighs. This went fine. Takashi is okay. That’s what really matters. But, well... so much for Plan A. 

Adam reaches over and solemnly shuts Curtis’ laptop and pats him on the back. “We’ll take you for your birthday.”

* * *

Much to Adam and Curtis’ surprise (and relief) the restaurant Takashi picks is a relatively inexpensive one. 

There’s this legendary barbecue shack out on the edge of town, and Takashi has been dying to try it but catching the place while it’s open is tricky. Most of its business seems to come from catering, and the actual restaurant is only open to the public from something like eleven to two on Tuesdays and Thursdays and there’s always a line out the door and if you’re not in that line when the place opens, you’re probably not going to get in the door at all. They all end up having to take the morning off to make it work. And that’s not a problem for Adam or Takashi, it’s summer, they’re both working half-days if they have to go in at all and Adam is only working as much as he is right now because he’s spending a couple hours a day in the simulator. They figured it would be a little harder for Curtis to get out of work but when he asked for the morning off and explained why, Iverson just said to bring him back a pound of brisket and he’d call it even. 

Takashi wakes them both up that morning like he’s five years old and it’s Christmas. Adam can’t be mad or even annoyed about getting bounced out of bed at eight in the morning to drive out to the edge of the desert and stand in a line, not when Takashi is that excited about it.

It’s no fancy Italian restaurant or Brazilian steakhouse. It’s a little prefab metal shack with a smoking barbecue pit out back and fluorescent lights and metal tables and chairs with cracked vinyl seat cushions and walls covered with license plates and faded posters and possibly stolen road signs. There’s a jukebox in the corner playing old-school country music. There is no wine list. No fancy drinks with fruit skewers. No craft IPAs with smartass names. Just Budweiser and Bud Light and an assortment of canned sodas. 

And the barbecue lives up to the legend. Absolutely worth standing in line for three hours for. Almost worth the lingering deep visceral  _ nope  _ that makes Adam shudder every time he thinks about what kind of “stories” his dad could have told him. 

The joy on Takashi’s face when he tucks into a rack of ribs he’s probably going to end up classifying as a religious experience... that’s definitely worth it. Curtis seems to thinks so too; when Takashi takes that first bite and his eyes roll back in his head, he laughs and squeezes Adam’s knee under the table. 

_ He deserves this, _ Adam thinks. After everything that’s happened, he deserved to have that work out.

Adam knows this won’t be the last elephant they have to escort out of the room. They’re all kind of flying by the seat of their pants on this whole thing, of course they’re going to run into more issues down the road--like how or even  _ if  _ they can make this official (Takashi thinks he has an idea on that front and he’s got an old academy buddy in Legal looking into a loophole he thinks they might be able to exploit) and what’s going to happen when they decide they’re ready for kids. 

But all of that can wait. For now, Adam just wants to enjoy watching Takashi savor his fair-won barbecue. 


End file.
